Demand for earlier police interventions to end sex grooming

Yvette Cooper will pledge to halt “this Tory rush to privatisation of our police”Ray Tang/Rex Features

Yvette Cooper will demand today that the Government introduce safeguards to stop a repeat of the sexual abuse in Rochdale, The Times has learnt.

The Shadow Home Secretary will outline Labour’s response to the case in which nine men were jailed for grooming girls as young as 12 after a huge collective failure by local agencies in charge of child protection.

She will call for the Government to develop an early warning system to help to identify young people, either in care or living with their parents, who are vulnerable to sexual exploitation.

Ms Cooper is expected to say: “In Rochdale, vulnerable girls aged 12 to 18 were ignored and described as prostitutes by authorities who were supposed to protect them. That is chilling. We…